May/June 2000

I got home to Tucson strategically in time for the birth of my niece Kaitlyn. The timing was also good for Tucson’s dramatic seasonal lightning extravaganza as well as the blooming of cactus flowers. As for the weather, my timing couldn’t have been worse. ‘But it’s a dry heat!’ Sure, and you can still fry an egg on the hood of your car, with or without the water.

As much as I wanted to come home, I just didn’t feel at home when I got there. My own bed was comfortable but my life wasn’t. I felt strangely out of place, like a snake trying to fit into it’s shedded skin. I was not the same person that left town some six months ago. Coming back to a lifestyle that didn’t suit me took my spirits down a notch.

On top of that my neighborhood in Tucson had changed as well. New homes, even an entire subdivision and a church within a half mile of my former ‘hideaway’ home. More traffic and less wildlife. Another notch.

The only things that lifted me out of the dumpster were the deadlines of my exhibitions and the prospect of being back on the road immediately thereafter.